TISSUE REMODELING OF SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS IN PULMONARY BLOOD VESSELS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Pulmonary hypertension afflicts people living in high altitude, and people with lung and heart diseases. According to a survey by National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, there were 570,461 patients hospitalized with pulmonary hypertension between 1995 and 1998 in the USA. The effects of hypertension on the progress of the disease are associated with tissue remodeling of the pulmonary blood vessels. Extensive literature search showed that much remains unknown about the tissue remodeling of blood vessels. Our preliminary work (refs. 1-5) made a beginning, but much more needs to be done, especially on the vascular smooth muscle cells. In this project, we focus on the ultrastructure of smooth muscle cells in pulmonary blood vessels, try to understand how the cell and cellular components (such as cell shape, cell orientation, cell number, actin filaments, microtubules, nucleus, etc) respond to the changes of blood pressure and blood flow, and try to find out the ultrastructural differences among pulmonary artery, arteriole, vein, and velune. Our study will help us understand the mechanism of tissue remodeling of smooth muscle cells in pulmonary blood vessels due to hypertension.